How the Story Begins: From Sacred Symbols to Blood Bonds

I grew up in the Bronx, the youngest of four, with two older brothers and an older sister. I attended a mix of Catholic and public schools, sang in the glee club, and played the alto saxophone. At 15, a high school friend gifted me my first Tarot deck.

I devoured the little book that came with it, then set it aside. I trusted my intuition—and found I had a gift for reading the cards. That spark lit a fire that led me deeper into the esoteric. I read everything I could find on the occult sciences and listened to the whispered ghost stories told by my maternal grandmother. From her, I learned folk magic: blessings, cleansings, simple prayers to stop bleeding or send an unwelcome guest on their way. Her magic lived in the glow of a candle and the steam of a boiling pot—bush baths and floor washes to banish evil or invite good fortune.

As I grew, I devoured everything magical. The Lesser Key of Solomon fascinated me; I studied higher magick, Enochian systems, Caribbean spiritism, and the mythologies of Greece, Rome, and Egypt—all fuel for my restless imagination.

When I turned to writing, I knew my stories would always be steeped in magic—worlds where words of belief make flowers bloom and fires blaze, where a hero fights not with a sword but with spirit and will.

Of course, there were false starts—characters half-formed, stories that never breathed.

Then came the spark for Blood Match: What if there was a vampire, unique in all the world, searching for the only other who could complete him—his blood match? The premise unfolded slowly, as they often do.

And then, as always, I got a knock on the door of my mind. I opened it—and there he was. Leonidas De La Cruz: Sanguinis Divina. Divine Blood. My dashing, brooding, drop-dead gorgeous vampire searching for his perfect Match.

He was lonely—the weight of centuries on his shoulders. Almost ready to fade into the oblivion of anonymity. I knew I needed to save him. My matchmaker’s mind got to work.

Enter Liam Von Anderson: kind-hearted, artistic, sad, and grieving. A photographer of extraordinary talent who had suffered a tragic loss—and put his camera down. I knew these two had to meet. Perhaps they could become the lifeline each of them needed.

So, in the very first chapter, in a blizzard by the light of a gallery window, I engineered the meeting.

When I started Blood Match, I did so without an outline. I’m what you’d call a pantser—I write by the seat of my pants! I let the characters drive the story.

They might show up while I’m washing dishes and start a conversation, telling me about their day and the fascinating things that happened to them. Then they might just walk out the door with a backward glance and a casually tossed comment—You got all that, right?—to which I just shake my head and smile.

The stories I write come from a place deep within me, the place where magic exists. I believe that there are things that we cannot explain, beings that live in the very air around us, that share our world. Magic, pure and simple, just beyond the corner of our eye. If we look directly at it, it disappears—but if we are careful, we might yet catch a glimpse of it.

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Thank you for joining me on this journey. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes glimpses into the worlds I create, the characters who call to me, and the magic that fuels every word I write.

I’d love to hear from you!
What draws you to stories of magic and myth? Leave a comment below and let’s talk about the mysteries that inspire us.